Dambrot wins 500th game, receives congratulations from LeBron taken in Altoona, Pa. (Duquesne)

Duquesne Athletics

Keith Dambrot enjoys his milestone game on the sideline with Duquesne players at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

It's been a magical couple of days for Keith Dambrot, with a great career milestone for himself coming one day after his biggest star player made history.

Dambrot earned his 500th career victory as a college head coach with Duquesne's 75-52 win over George Mason on Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

Shortly after the win, LeBron James sent out this message of congratulations to his former high school coach.

Of the 500 wins, 87 have come during Dambrot's tenure at Duquesne. He took over as the Dukes' head coach in 2017 and has compiled a record of 87-76.

The Dukes are having a strong season, improving to 16-8 overall and 6-5 in the Atlantic 10 with their blowout victory Wednesday. The team has been sensational its last two games, with the blowout over George Mason coming on the heels of Duquesne's biggest road victory ever in the A10, a 93-67 win at George Washington.

Dambrot spent two seasons at Division II Tiffin, two seasons at Division II Great Lakes, two seasons at Central Michigan and 13 seasons at Akron before coming to Duquesne.

Dambrot also spent three seasons coaching in high school at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, where for two years he coached LeBron James. The team won back-to-back state championships during James' stint with Dambrot.

On Tuesday, James became the NBA's career scoring leader, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Dambrot sent congratulations to James in this Twitter message:

Duquesne controlled Wednesday's game against George Mason, leading 31-23 at the half and then dominating in the second half. The Dukes led by as many as 29 points.

Dae Dae Grant led Duquesne with 20 points, while Tevin Brewer had 17. The defense held George Mason to 37 percent shooting.

Here's a good note from Duquesne's release about Dambrot's 500 career victories:

Dambrot is the 27th active Division I coach to reach the 500-win mark. Of the 27, only eight have never coached at a Power 5/Big East school: Mark Few (Gonzaga), Greg Kampe (Oakland), Lennie Acuff (Bellhaven, Berry, Alabama Huntsville, Lipscomb), Fran Dunphy (Penn, Temple, La Salle), Scott Nagy (South Dakota State, Wright State), Ron Cottrell (Houston Christian) and Randy Bennett (Saint Mary's, Calif.) are the others.

Here are some other congratulatory messages for Dambrot, from Shaka Smart to Bob Huggins and others.

THE ESSENTIALS

โ€ข Box score
โ€ข Standings
โ€ข Schedule
โ€ข Statistics

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